Janet Place, MPH, director of the North Carolina Institute for Public Health's Southeast Public Health Training Center, received the Theodore R. Ervin Award for Outstanding Service at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting in Denver on Nov. 9. The award, presented by the board of directors of the national Public Health Foundation, recognizes creative vision, relentless commitment and leadership to public health practice.

 

Place was honored for her work in modifying and adapting national core public health competencies established by the Council on Linkages between Academia and Practice (COL). Specifically, she has focused on developing a three-tier competency continuum that better defines expected skills of entry level, management and leadership personnel in public health agencies.

 

Core competencies allow public health agencies to appropriately assess performance and training needs and develop training curricula. The COL competencies are cited as the workforce development standards in the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services' new Healthy People 2020 blueprint, to be released in early December.

 

Place continues to coordinate national efforts to create tools utilizing the core competencies for better workforce assessment, including outcome measures, professional development and quality improvement.

 
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.